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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Okay, Okay, I'm Doing It ... And I Made a Fascinating Discovery!

It’s the beginning of March, and I—I’m taking down my Christmas decorations. Oh yes, I know it’s late for that. You don’t have to remind me that Christmas was 70 days ago and is only 295 days away!

Taking decorations down is not nearly as fun as putting them up. While unpacking them, you are getting reacquainted with forgotten friends. Setting them out, you’re anticipating the hopefully happy holiday ahead. After Christmas, when most people take down and pack away their decorations, there is nothing to look forward to but a few months of winter weather and bare trees. Blah.

Injured thumb,mostly healed

I like to declare that I’m going to leave my decorations up till it snows! Some years, we don’t get snow at all, so I make the claim mostly in jest. But if it does snow while my trees are still up, I turn the tree lights on and enjoy a little extra Christmas magic. This year, we got a little snow late in January, and then we got a really good snow the second week in February. I had fully intended to undecorate during that second snow, but an awful thing happened as the first of the snowfall appeared: my daughter tripped while carrying glassware, which hit the ground and shattered only seconds before she herself hit the ground and cut her hand. Tears streaming down my face, we raced to the ER, where my brave young adult daughter received a tetanus shot, stitches, and packing and bandaging of the hole where her thumbprint used to be.

That was the end of my plans. I spent the rest of the week fetching and carrying, doing all the cooking, and pampering my poor pitiful princess with facials, pedicures, and back rubs. I also had to spend time working in my home office, and housework piled up. I’m happy to report that her thumb has healed nicely, and her physical therapist is pleased with her progress. So now maybe things will get back to normal around here. She helped me take down the living room trees (three of them, none very large at all) over the weekend.

Inside the stable—look, a camel left a “present.”Just kidding! I don’t know what that is.

As I was packing up my beloved nativity, passed down to me from my mother, I noticed something startling. On the back wall of the nativity stable is a postcard-sized picture of the traveling wisemen, which I had seen many times before. However, I recently came into possession of that same artwork, in larger, framed form, that used to hang on my paternal grandmother’s wall! It’s been hanging in the living room for three months now. I had no idea that they were the same! What a fun discovery!

Anyway, by waiting till March (accidentally, I assure you), I’m able to replace the Christmas decor with spring decor. It’s time for the floral arrangements to make their appearance. Now we are anticipating spring and noticing the early blooms around town. We haven’t quite bid the cold weather adieu, but it won’t be long now. Warm sunny weather has already given us a taste of the season to come. So really, March seems quite the right time to pack away Christmas and unpack spring, don’t you agree?

So glad J's thumb has healed so well!! The artwork discovery is really kind of cool!! That is a lovely image, and one that can be left on the wall year-round!! I have a nativity-type scene that I leave out all year, and also a Madonna & Child figure that is out all year. Great reminders, even during Easter!

My grandma displayed this framed piece all year round, I think. She also had another piece, a country landscape, to which a picture of Jesus ascending into the clouds was glued, making it look as if he was coming back. As a child, that one fascinated me. I didn't realize until I grew up that Jesus wasn't originally part of the print!

Love that old print! How neat that it matched the other one. I've been slow, too, about putting all the decor away (not quite as slow as you, haha), but so much is not traditional Christmas colors/designs, so it's easy enough to get away with. We have snow here - it snowed all afternoon and most of the evening yesterday...it's been a lovely wintery winter!

March is the right time, indeed. Finally getting my husband over the idea that putting decorations out does not have to wait til after thanksgiving. Maybe we could make putting away the decorations into some kind of game. Think on that.